Quilt 2 End ALZ

Quilting to mend the mind

Blocks & Patterns ·

Log Cabin Variations: Star Log Cabin

2019: our Year of the Log Cabin. I was so happy when Ashli announced this as our Q2EA theme of the year for a few reasons: (1) I’m still a fairly green quilter so the simplicity of the Log Cabin suits me very well, (2) I first learned how to quilt by making a log cabin block so I already felt nicely familiar with the pattern, and (3) I love how many fabrics you can use in one block without it feeling too hectic.

However, I will admit that 12 months of the same pattern can become a tad boring. On one hand, it’s nice that you can turn a whole quilt out so quickly once you become a pro at the pattern (especially when using Eleanor Burns’s Quilt In A Day method), but I like a bit of variety. 

So, I was excited when I came across another Eleanor Burns book, Star Log Cabin Quilt. I had never seen this variation to a log cabin before (remember, I’m still pretty new at this!) and had been wanting to try these “star” blocks out for a while, so finding this book was quite opportune. 

To make things even more serendipitous, I found a whole family of fabrics at Hobby Lobby with the exact number of fabrics I needed for the star log cabin pattern.

Since I knew I would use a dark solid as my lattice between blocks, I wanted to use these fun, bold, patterns for my actual log cabin strips, anchoring them with a solid (and fabulously shiny) light blue solid as my center block. 

In fact, I loved that shiny blue so much, I used it for my stars too!

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Cutting & Piecing

The beginning construction is the same as a regular log cabin block; 12 strips around the center. Then you cut your sashing, create your stars, sew those together, and piece everything together to make your finished topper.

My original plan was to cut everything out in the beginning, get all my strips and triangles done so I could sew straight through. But then I realized how many half square triangles I was going to need and as my tiny-triangle scrap pile continued to grow, I had to just start sewing strips together or I was going to go triangle blind.

I do have to admit that I didn’t follow Eleanor Burns’s piecing instructions quite to a tee. The book was published in 1995 so it felt a little outdated and the vocabulary is a little different than what I’m used to in the current Quilt in A Day book.

Once I got the hang of the stars, it all felt pretty straight forward. 

Lining up all my seams was a bit trickier than usual (a factor my inner perfectionist almost imploded over) but I think the whole thing came together pretty nicely in the end.

Now it just has to be quilted and bound and it’ll be ready to go!

For now, I’m on the hunt for the perfect backing fabric. These feel like such summery fabrics to me so I’m not in a huge rush to finish too quickly.

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What’s really next on my list is playing around with more log cabin variations.

I’ve already started one adaptation with my leftover fabric from this star log cabin quilt. Instead of alternating lights and darks, I’m using the log cabin piecing method but with one fabric for each ring. 

And then I want to try wonky log cabin blocks, quilt as you go log cabin blocks, courthouse steps, scrappy log cabin hearts, and log cabin blocks that use other types of blocks as their center. So many fun ways to switch things up!

xoxo, Clara

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